Tag: Lent

Asking Without Grumbling: Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent

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3rd Sunday of Lent, A                                                                                   March 8, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                            St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/G9Z_RRVSko0 When you need water, do you ask for it? Or do you grumble about the fact that you are thirsty? In both cases, the need is the same... that need is legitimate. Without water we die, so the suffering and misery of thirst is our body saying “this is important!” If our bodies can use misery to get what it needs, why can’t we? Who says we can’t? I’m saddened by the misguided way Christians sometimes talk about our feelings and experiences, often reducing them...Read More

Why Do Anything? Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent 2026

Posted on by Father Albert
2nd Sunday of Lent, A                                                                                  March 1, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                            St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/IN8w68Tje-o “It is good that we are here!” Why is it good? “Because we see Jesus in glory!” “Why do we want that?” This past week, I pestered the 6th grade boys with this kind of questioning. Every time they answered why we should want something, I would ask, “why do we want that?” Now that we’re in the heart of Lent and some of the things we’re doing can begin to weigh on us, we might ask ourselves, “why are we doing this?” You might...Read More

The Breadth of Faith: Homily for the 1st Sunday of Lent 2026

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1stSunday of Lent, A                                                                              February 22, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                           St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/q9cjTNgWNJ4 What’s the big deal? It’s just a piece of fruit. How can something as small as eating one wrong piece of fruit be so bad that it breaks the whole world, gets Adam & Eve banned from the garden, and causes human beings for the rest of time to become weaker, dumber, and doomed to die? Isn’t that a bit unfair? Apparently not. Because God is just. God is good. If God, who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and perfectly good says this is the right consequence, then...Read More

Signs and Symbols: Homily for Ash Wednesday 2026

Posted on by Father Albert
Ash Wednesday                                                                              February 18, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                           St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/m_PgVRYiTNM A visible sign of an invisible reality. That’s what this is. That phrase should sound familiar – a visible sign of an invisible reality – because it is one of the ways we describe the Sacraments. All 7 of the capital-S Sacraments are visible – or audible – signs of an invisible reality. But that definition doesn’t just apply to those 7 rituals. Our faith is full of visible signs for invisible realities like we have today. The ashes are a visible sign of the...Read More

2025 Triduum Part I: Healing our Communion

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Mass of the Lord's Supper                                                                              April 17, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/3VSL59f5zG4 “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you” (Lk 22:15). Jesus says that in Luke’s Gospel, but I’m saying it too. We aren’t just remembering something, we are entering into it. Tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday, we are participating in a continuous liturgy that truly makes present the most important event in all of time and space. Entering into that reality with you is not just a nice addition to us as parish and pastor… it helps define our...Read More

Uncomfortable Mercy: Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent 2025

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5th Sunday of Lent, C                                                                                      April 6, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/1qiAE8QwpbE Let’s talk a little inside baseball on scripture today. You see, most scripture scholars think this story of the woman caught in adultery was not originally in John’s Gospel. Why? Because it isn’t in some of the oldest copies of the bible we have, from around 400 A.D. Where it does show up, it’s in different places or in another gospel, which kind of gives the impression that people who added it in later on didn’t know where to...Read More

We Stubborn Brothers: Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent 2025

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4th Sunday of Lent, C                                                                                      March 30, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/jYy-gRolW0k What do you call this story? Parable of the prodigal son, right? That’s not what Jesus calls it. There isn’t a name, actually. Those bolded titles in most bibles are added by editors. I think that, if we asked Jesus what the name of this parable should be, he wouldn’t call it the prodigal son. I think he’d call it the parable of the stubborn brother. Don’t get me wrong, I love to emphasize the prodigal son’s return and...Read More

A Story Worth Repeating: Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent 2025

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2nd Sunday of Lent, C                                                                                     March 16, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/hXBuswJd0aw Perhaps you’ve heard this story from me before. If so, I hope you don’t mind hearing it again. One summer as boy, I got to trek through the mountains in northern New Mexico in a crew of mostly 14 and 15 year-old boys. For 10 days we wound through the mountains. The final leg of the trip brought us to back base camp by way of the mountain called the Tooth of Time. So, on that final night, we...Read More

Going With Gratitude: Homily for the 1st Sunday of Lent 2025

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1st Sunday of Lent, C                                                                                      March 9, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/roydVxA4x5c In 1925 in New York, a 27 year-old woman became pregnant. Normally, it’s not surprising for a woman in her 20s sharing her life with a man to experience that. Only, this woman thought it would never happen because of a choice she had made the last time she was with child, something she thought would leave her barren the rest of her life. But then it happened anyway. This momentous event wasn’t entirely isolated. Shortly before finding herself...Read More

Whatever it Takes: Homily for Ash Wednesday 2025

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Ash Wednesday                                                                                              March 5, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/ArNnE4yuS8c “Do whatever it takes.” How often do we hear that? How many motivational speeches and posters exhort us to do whatever it takes? And for good reason. There’s a certain kind of blunt power to it, a directness and simplicity that has a way of lodging in the brain. Forget the excuses, the complicated whatnots… do whatever it takes. Whatever it takes to do… what, exactly? That’s the important question. If your goal is a noble one – holiness, helping others, overcoming...Read More